"This would never fly in the States"

“This would never fly in the States” those words kept running through my head as I watched my coworkers open the second bottle of whisky at 1:30 in the afternoon on a Wednesday (the first was opened at 12:00). Luckily, I told them that I don’t like whiskey so they were gracious enough to pour me a Spy (Thailand’s version of the wine cooler) otherwise I don’t think that I would have made it home (I do have to ride my bike and I have heard from other volunteers that it can be quite treacherous if you are drunk).

I didn’t know what the office staff was celebrating, but assumed that it had something to do with Songkran…after all, it was starting in a couple of days. So I just sat back and watched the laughter and fun (it is a little hard to join in when you don’t understand what people are saying) and ate some really good food for they had brought Som Tom which is a spicy (and I mean spicy) papaya salad that is delicious (even if has fermented fish in it). Later on, they told me that Sin (the office janitor) was getting married that evening (at least I think that’s what they said but they made the poor guy clean up all of the food after everyone left and he was here bright and early the next day).

As soon as 4:30 rolled around (that’s the time we get off of work) they all hopped on their motorcycles & I hopped on my bike and we went to a dance that was held to raise money for the Wat (temple). We had to leave a donation at the table and then if you wanted to dance, you had to purchase tickets…there were about 6 ladies with me and we managed to convince (or con?) some drunk guy into buying us all tickets so that we could dance. Now in order to dance, you had to “buy” dances with these ladies who were wearing neon green or neon orange cheerleading skirts. So we all stood in a big long line dancing with these women (there weren’t any guys wearing the skirts) and they would blow a whistle throughout the song and that was the signal for the ladies to tear up a ticket. Now also on the dance floor were three big barrels of water (it is Songkran after all) and every once in a while, someone would walk by with a bucket and pour water down your back…so everyone was soaking wet.

I just have to say if “this would never fly in the States” then I am glad I am here in Thailand because I had a lot of fun! And I was even cold when I got home & had to bundle up in a blanket to get warm (I checked the thermometer and it was 88).